Cheapest AMD or Nvidia series of cards that support HEVC decoding

[jtvang125]

I have a AMD HD5700 series in my HTPC I went with to do h/w decoding of AVC. It doesn't seem to support HEVC so 4K video chokes badly with around 50% CPU utilization. The R390x in my gaming rig doesn't seem to support it either but the playback is fine probably due to the 5820k being beefy enough.

So what series of cards support h/w decoding of this codec? Preferably the cheapest one since I don't game on the HTPC.

 

[thecoolnessrune]

AMD: RX 550 - Around $125 at today's GPU prices
NVIDIA: GT 1030 - Around $120 at today's GPU prices.

With the GT 1030 using less power, and including VP9 decoding, it's the clear winner for an HTPC rig if you need a dGPU.

 

[ZGR]

How are you playing 4k videos? VLC with gpu acceleration should be fine.

 

[jtvang125]

How are you playing 4k videos? VLC with gpu acceleration should be fine.

Yes these are videos but if it's encoded with the h.265 HEVC codec then the gpu has to support it before any software can utilize it.

 

[ZGR]

Yes these are videos but if it's encoded with the h.265 HEVC codec then the gpu has to support it before any software can utilize it.

You need to enable GPU acceleration in VLC. I suggest trying old 2.0.2 which has the easy GPU acceleration check box.

https://www.videolan.org/vlc/releases/2.0.2.html

Even my old HD 4000 igpu can do 4k60 120mbps.

You can also do this in Chrome.

 

[thecoolnessrune]

You need to enable GPU acceleration in VLC. I suggest trying old 2.0.2 which has the easy GPU acceleration check box.

https://www.videolan.org/vlc/releases/2.0.2.html

Even my old HD 4000 igpu can do 4k60 120mbps.

You can also do this in Chrome.

Intel iGPUs didn't get partial HEVC Decode support until HD 6000. You might have enough CPU grunt to do HEVC in Software, but you're not offloading it to the iGPU.

 

[greatnoob]

You need to enable GPU acceleration in VLC. I suggest trying old 2.0.2 which has the easy GPU acceleration check box.

https://www.videolan.org/vlc/releases/2.0.2.html

Even my old HD 4000 igpu can do 4k60 120mbps.

You can also do this in Chrome.

Your HD 4000 isn't doing any decoding... have you realised that maybe that's why your CPU has been loaded 90% + when playing 4k HEVC?

 

[Krteq]

AMD: RX 550 - Around $125 at today's GPU prices
NVIDIA: GT 1030 - Around $120 at today's GPU prices.

With the GT 1030 using less power, and including VP9 decoding, it's the clear winner for an HTPC rig if you need a dGPU.

Polaris 12 (RX 550) also supports 4K VP9 HW acceleration, but I agree, GTX 1030 is a winner here.

 

[ZGR]

The CPU is at idle when using GPU acceleration. That is what I am getting at.

But this is just for 4k60 playback and editing.

 

[krumme]

The CPU is at idle when using GPU acceleration. That is what I am getting at.

But this is just for 4k60 playback and editing.

Hevc?

 

[jtvang125]

Hevc?

Yes, what codec is the video in? h.264 AVC has had GPU acceleration for several years now so that might be what he's seeing. This works for me too.

However if I playback videos encoded with HEVC, which both of my GPUs do not support (confirmed with DXVA Checker), I see over 50% cpu utilization on a AMD x4 in the HTPC and about 18-20% on the 5820k. It's unwatchable on the AMD but plays fine on Intel as the cpu more or less can handle it.

 

[Harry_Wild]

I have a 4790 CPU and built-in HD 4600 graphics and it plays all my streaming 4K @ 60 hertz content in my 2750 4K monitor using one displayport! Has 16GB RAM. I was going to buy either a 1030 or 1050 ti card but price are nearly double that of entry MSRP for them 6-8 month ago. I doing fine with my setup and can wait it out till prices drop on graphic cards.